A young man says he was beaten and robbed at gunpoint while riding his bike through Falls Park on Thursday, and the attackers are still on the loose.

Many News 4 viewers say they want to know why it took four days for police to notify the public.

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News 4's Angela Rodriguez reached out to police and city leaders, but the requests for an interview were denied.

The simple answer from police is that they didn't tell the public immediately because they didn't believe there was an active threat.

Gideon Hackett, 19, said he was riding his bike through the park on his way home when a mob of 10-12 teenagers assaulted him and robbed him at gunpoint.

The incident has generated a tremendous amount of public interest. The story on wyff4.com was clicked on more than 24,000 times, and the Facebook posting on the assault was seen more than 43,000 times.

Many viewers expressed outrage about not being informed about the attack until four days after it happened.

The Greenville Police Department declined the opportunity for an interview, but police responded via email, saying: "As for releasing that information, we don't make it a habit to release everything that comes through our office. We release it when we get a request from the media or when we need help in solving a crime. The investigation was too early to ask for help because we had not got any good suspect descriptions."

Monday through Friday, local media outlets get a daily report from law enforcement agencies across the Upstate lists of crimes committed overnight. Hackett reported the crime immediately after it happened. But it was not included in the media report on Friday or Monday morning, despite other assaults having been included.

When Rodriguez asked why the Falls Park incident was not in the reports, her request for an interview was denied.

Via email, Officer Johnathan Bragg said, "We did not see any public safety risks."

Police Chief Terri Wilfong says that officers are placed in strategic locations and she insists that the park is safe, and the assault was an isolated incident.

"It was just a crime of opportunity," she said on Monday. "(They) saw a single person late at night."